The International Cell Death Society attempts to promulgate research and clinical information on the broad topic of cell death, including apoptosis, autophagy, necrosis, necroptosis, and other variants. We attempt to bring together researchers from varying backgrounds and countries to each other, in an attempt to foster international cooperation and collaborations based on new and different ideas.

The Society was started as a club in 1995, based on the intellectual and personal compatibility of a group of researchers from very different backgrounds working in the New York metropolitan area, who drew on their personal friendships and interest in developing a regular discussion group. It meets monthly and, in 1996, sponsored a successful one-day symposium of a similar nature, which was followed by a second New York meeting in 1998.

The meeting of the ICDS is the most important annual event sponsored by the Society. It serves as the most visible example of the Society’s efforts to promote interaction and collaboration between scientists working in various subspecialty fields of apoptosis. There is no comparable US-based society that formally recognizes the needs for such a rapidly growing area.

In 2000, the Society organized a meeting in Spain, and from there progressed to meetings in Australia, Ireland, Brazil, China, Iran, and South Africa. We have also sponsored smaller meetings in several countries.

Our meetings have always been distinguished by a high percentage representation of women among the speakers and chairs.

This meeting distinguishes itself from others in several fashions:

Our goal has been consistently to bring together groups from different research backgrounds to examine cell death in a multidisciplinary fashion, especially seeking interaction among neurologists, immunologists, developmental biologists, oncologists, and gerontologists.

The second meeting was published as an Annal of the New York Academy of Sciences (release date, fall 1999), and the third also published as an Annal of the New York Academy of Sciences (released December 2000). The second edition of When Cells Die (edited by Lockshin and Zakeri, Wiley Press) was structured based on the 2002 and 2004 meetings.

We keep our costs low to allow junior researchers easy access.

We also are one of the few meetings to deliberately select some junior researchers for major talks, and select others for shorter talks.

The atmosphere of the meetings is very intimate to allow extensive communication outside the formal talks.

We are international and we have truly international input in the organization of the meeting as well as speakers and the attitudes representative of an international committee.

We attempt to address broader topics, such as cell death in aging and development, that are frequently not addressed in meetings of more limited focus.